Dirty Old Man is a rye porter aged in rye whiskey barrels. This concoction gurgles out of the bottle a coffee and cream brown but occupies the glass black without letting any light shine through. The head grew one finger high and was cocoa colored. As the head fell to a thick cap it became creamy and left solid sheet lacing here and there. You can see the carbonation crawling up the sides of the glass and keep the head alive.

The nose of this beer is big and distinct. There's a definite rye presence from both the porter and barrel aging that extends throughout the aroma. Coffee, roasty malts, and dark berries combine nicely to add layer upon layer of complexity. The oak is in there but seems more a component of the spicy rye then an aroma working by itself. I can hardly pull my nose from the glass.

The flavor of this beer is just as complex and delicious as the nose suggested. All the porter notes hit at first. Dark chocolate, mildly roasted malts, and dark berries lead the way in that order. The rye is in there as well with notes from the porter and the barrel. The rye lasts throughout the drink. Mild damp whiskey soaked oak shows up mid palate and a very welcoming vanilla bean presence comes along on the swallow. There's great depth of flavor here. The chocolate, dark berries, and vanilla make this beer delicious and the rye spiciness adds even more flavor.

The body of this beer is on the lighter side of heavy which is helped by the carbonation making it incredibly velvety and smooth. There's an ample amount of carbonation but it always manages to stay calm, making the body massage its way through the mouth.

This is a sipper just from the depth of flavor. It's a beer I would love to sip all night. Dirty Old Man is one of those beers that could be opened at any time of the day and fully enjoyed. I don't want my glass to empty, this is my last bottle.

Dirty Old Man is a great beer. One I would love to see available on a rotating basis. Hopefully this one gets made again. Of course I do love rye whether it be whiskey, beer, bread, or whatever. Tyranena has been doing some really incredible things with their Brewers Gone Wild series lately. They're quickly becoming one of the top tier breweries in the country. I can't get enough of their stuff.

Lovely aroma of chocolate cookie dough and bourbony goodness. Hints of vanilla, fig, and raisin play lightly with a bit of dryness of grains as it warms.

Taste is quite nice with a delicate nature of chocolate mixing with dryish dark grainy goodness and the fluff of a chocolate covered pastry. Some chewy dark fruits entangle a raisin, fig, and date or two within the chocolatey goodness. There's just a touch of the bourbon racing around warming things up towards the finish as does some drying tones of grains and vanilla. But this sucker is all about the chocolate and is just lovely to let unfold after each sip and/or gulp.

Favorably mild taster with a bold stature of heavy bodied richness and creamy goodness thats quite slick in the body which carries this into the realm of wellhandled wholesome goodness and a wonderful ease of downability.

Oh the chocolate...so what I needed.
A damn solid porter of chocolatey goodness with subtle plays of dry bakery bourbonyness. Yum! Another winner by Tyranena's Brewers Gone Wild.
More like this please!

Very interesting aroma, rye and chocolate right away with hints of cocoa, citrus, roasted and slightly charred malts, and a subtle whiskey overtone. Nicely done. After the beer settles it has a dry chocolate aroma and it reminds me of chocolate corn flakes cereal. There’s also some cherries, vanilla, and malted milk.

Taste is very similar to the aroma, chocolate, dry rye, coffee, hints of whiskey, and also some citrus and tangy flavors in the finish.

Pours a deep brown color with a slight red tint to it. Decent tan head arises and fades into a thin layer on the surface of the brew. Nice roasty smell to this brew. Great rye notes of course along with some sweetness also. Light alcohol notes are there as well. Real nice well rounded flavor here. Roastiness is upfront, and it gives way to a extremely well balanced whiskey flavor. Light dark chocolate blends in with the whiskey very well. Decent mouthfeel, maybe a touch too thin, but still very drinkable.

As the first sips break, delightful charred flavors seek out the sides of my tongue. I pause after the first couple sips; about a minute later, booze heat appears. It's not overbearing, but it does remind you that this is a barrel-aged beer.

Further into the beer, I recognize the Tyranena porter snappiness -- the crisp, dark chocolate, flavors brought on by dark-roasted malts (well-accented by hops) are flavors I know well. They hit the back of the tongue while a new flavor combination emerges. It takes me a while to verbalize it, but I find two comparisons, both chocolate-related.

As a kid, I ate Fannie Mae chocolates on a regular basis because my family always seemed to have some around. It wasn't until I visited the stores themselves that I discovered their dark-chocolate-covered candied pineapple. For a fairly mass-produced candy, that pineapple is pretty good. So, I think that my palate is interpreting the rye flavors (both from the grain and the barrel) as pineapple. Interestingly, I'd call the mouthfeel of the beer similar to the viscosity of fresh pineapple. If you've ever chopped up a fresh one, you know what I mean.

As for the other chocolate comparison, it's all about Scharffen-Berger. A friend of mine in San Francisco loves to cook as much as I do and has also spent some of her working life in restaurants; these two topics come up regularly in our emails. A few months ago, while ooh-ing and aah-ing over our respective local farmers' markets, we decided to trade farmers' market goods in the same way that others trade beer. Her shipment to me included Scharffen-Berger chocolate in several different forms -- bars, coffee beans, and jarred ganache. The common characteristic of this brand of chocolate, I find, is fruitiness. There's a sweet citrus and stone fruit tinge to it. After half a bottle of Dirty Old Man, I get the same thing.

I like this beer; I like the balance of smoke and sweet and sharp and crisp. I like that it reminds me of nibbling on chocolate while sitting at the bar at Maduro. Overall, it's not the most complex beer I've ever had, but I don't think that every beer needs to be that, either. Plus, I have no doubt that the next time I drink this, I'll get something else out of it.

Seek this one out and drink it sooner rather than later.

Price: $2.00 Served In: Pint Glass

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